In the past week, I’ve been revising my latest manuscript. And come to the awful conclusion: My heroine is easy.
Anytime the hero gets all arrogantly green-eyed on her, she melts into a puddle. Not good if the whole point of the story is to draw out the dramatic tension–will they or won’t they? If THIS heroine is involved, they will.
Sigh.
I’m not going to change the story, since my heroine is who she is, but I have to wonder if she is heroic, given how susceptible to Mr. Green Eyes she is. She has other qualities, to be sure, but the fact remains that she likes to suck face with the hero.
In reviewing my other manuscripts, the heroines vary in personality, of course, but they do have that one quality in common. Hm. I think it’s because I abhor the ‘I secretly love it, but I’ll protest to show how ladylike I am’ heroine. If you like what he’s doing, make sure he knows it, is my writing theory. Plus I picture my hero looking like this:
How can she resist?!?
Of course, then someone might label her a slut. Like I just did.
What do you think about this kind of heroine?
I like a heroine to be unafraid show her appreciation for the hero’s lovemaking skills, particularly if she’s a widow and had some experience. Of course, if her previous husband was a brute, she might be a little shyer about revealing her more lusty side. I think it all depends on the hero. Does he appreciate the fact that she enjoys it? Does he go out of his way to make sure that she gets her fortune cookies as it were. If she’s a virgin, of course, it mightbe a little harder probably for her to perhaps except her more lusty side. Either works for me.
EKM, thanks for the comment.
In this case, the hero is VERY appreciative of the heroine’s enthusiasm, ’cause his deceased wife hated the deed, and he appreciates this woman’s enjoyment.
If the heroine enjoys it she should say so!! I realize for the sake of realism that if you have a heroine with no experience or a bad experience in her past then her reaction might need to be tempered a little, but if he is REALLY good at what he does – hey, the guy deserves some recognition!!
“but if he is REALLY good at what he does – hey, the guy deserves some recognition!!”
LOL! Totally agree. 🙂 A heroine with a healthy interest in The Deed is a good thing.
I think it’s because I abhor the ‘I secretly love it, but I’ll protest to show how ladylike I am’ heroine.
IMHO if the heroine is resisting, her reasons should be stronger than that. Like, ‘I secretly love it but I can’t get involved because of ____(some reason central to the conflict).’
If she’s got some strong reasons to resist it can draw out the sexual tension. Otherwise nothing wrong with her liking to suck face with the hero. And showing it. 🙂
I think women fought a long time to have it be acceptable to enjoy ‘lovemaking’ without being called sluts – I say more power to your heroine! To me, it is much more believable for heroines to enjoy the lovemaking, than not…but Regency heroines do have to consider the consequences–that’s my pet peeve in Regency historicals, when it never crosses the heroine’s mind what could happen.
(so have your heroine take that into account, Megan!)
Oh, mine too, Megan. I remember a critique partner asking with great earnestness, “What’s her motivation for having sex?”
And that really made me think. The heroine didn’t have any motivation–she wasn’t doing him to save her life or because she needed money. It was all about desire. I think desire, like love, is a mystery; they don’t necessarily go together, which is even more interesting. And neither has any to do with motivation or goals or any sort of sense or logic.
People have actually told me they liked “Rules”–or liked the sound of it–because it has none of that nasty sex stuff in it, whereas in my opinion it’s full of it–but just not acted upon by the principals.
While I feel bizarre for arguing this side of things, I think there are many good reasons why a woman before the modern era would resist sex with a man, no matter how lusty she was–except, of course, within the bounds of marriage. There was no effective birth control; women had very limited ability to earn their own way in the world; and a child born out of wedlock was permanently stigmatized.
Of course, some women did become mistresses of (hopefully) wealthy men–but doing so was making a probably irrevocable choice, and was in many senses a gamble of her future prospects.
So I don’t think a lady’s resistance was just to prove that she was ladylike–there were potentially very serious consequences to not resisting.
Todd-who-is-glad-he-lives-in-more-enlightened-times
I have no problem w/heroines like that. Who could blame them, if the hero looks like Clive Owen?
TTFN, LLB
Of course, my heroine doesn’t necessarily consummate, at least not right away, which is an important point, as most of you mention. And, yeah, LLB, he does look like Clive. Sigh.